#BookReview ‘The 23rd Pan Book Of Horror’ Edited by Herbert Van Thal

About the book…

Visions of unspeakable vileness…

‘Gwyneth placed the point of the pin on the iris of the left eye and pushed, sinking it in until the pinhead was flush with the surface of the eyeball.’ – The Sleeping Prince, Angus Gellatly.

‘Across her face, from left to right, was a pink and white zipper that sealed off her mouth as tightly as a locked suitcase…‘ – Dr Dichter and the Terminal Cosmetic, Jane Louie.

‘She plunged white, bloodstained hands into the yawning cavity of his chest. A wild screech of delight tore itself from her throat as she grasped his heart...’ – Rightfully Mine, Norman P. Kaufman.

…to stain the world with the sanguine tints of terror

‘The 23rd Pan Book Of Horror’ was edited by Herbert Van Thal and published by Pan in 1982…as can be seen by the cover, compared to the earlier ones, the lurid and dark modelled designs are reflective of the rise in a more gruesome, body horror focussed market. This would DEFINITELY have stood out on anyone’s bookshelves!

The contents include-

‘The Sleeping Prince’ by Angus Gellatly (unreal, unbelievable and pretty much unreadable )

‘Dengue fever’ by Paul Theroux (racist and not scary)

‘You Can’t Be Too Careful’ by Ruth Rendell (the best story by far in the collection)

‘A Rhyme’ by Elizabeth Naden-Borland (or rather, a piece of doggerel)

‘Fat Old Women who wear fur coats’ by Harry E.Turner (a description of larger women observed eating cake in a manner which robs you of all appetite)

‘Daughter of the house’ by Heather Vineham (Nope)

‘Dr Dichter and the terminal cosmetic’ by Jane Louie (Big fat nope-misogyny on a grand scale)

‘Foster parents’ by Gregory Alexander (banal and also, why? Just why?)

A backwards shadow’ by Rosemary Timperley ( wibbly wobbly timey wimey nonsense)

‘Chance governs all’ by W.S Reardon ( no, no it does not )

‘The dogs’ by Alex White (just awful, avoid)

‘Rightfully mine’ by Norman P Kaufman (please take it back, I beg you!)

‘Kowlongo plaything’ by Alan Temperley (racist, sexist, unfinished)

None of the authors have biographies included in the book, some names are immediately recognisable, others have popped up frequently in this series so far-I am thinking Duclie Gray and Norman Kaufman-but most of them are unknown to me outside of the Pan Books.

And boy is this book a stinker. I mean properly bad, chuck it away and not even finish it bad.

Gone are the pretensions to make you wary of shadows and jump at the smallest noises and in their place are tales of sheer,pulpy nastiness.

Great, if this is your thing, but when each and every one of these stories relies on what Stephen King refers to as the lowest level of jump scares, “the gross out”, then you quickly lose interest.

The focus on retribution and vengeance is often inexplicable, as in ‘The Dogs’, where a weary stranger turning up at a mansions door seeking sanctuary, encounters a psychopathic killer with a track history in bumping off his family, the help etc etc. This could have been an interesting story however, the reliance on gore to replace scare neuters the whole effect.

Racist stereotypes refer to ‘the other” in the same way that women are summarily dispatched, tossed away like plot points no one could bother developing.

The best -and I use that term loosely-tale is the Ruth Rendell one, she very rarely disappoints and in ‘You Can’t Be Too Careful’  she builds a tale of neuroses and fear which is skilful and does not rely on violence as a punchline

If this is a reflection of the time it was published in, then it appears Herbert Van Thal was trying to cash in on the splatter horror trend, but all it does is show how far the annual anthology has fallen, it comes up short against earlier volumes and honestly, I need to go back in time and have a word with my younger self who obviously lapped up any horror she could get her hands on and had little in the way of discriminating tastes.

For those readers who love gore and sexualised violence, fill yer boots.

For those who want nuanced, subtle creeping dread, they best look elsewhere, as will I.

Fond recollections are sometimes best left as just that.

About the editor…

Herbert Maurice van Thal (1904-1983), known as Bertie van Thal, was a British bookseller, publisher, agent, biographer, and anthologist.